Stacey Thompson’s bridal salon in Torrance has received accolades from The Knot, and the local newspaper. Now her website reflects the elegance of the bridal gowns she sells.

Using the Nirvana theme from Cryout Creations provided the ability to customize a homepage with a photo slider, and beautiful grid layout of featured photos from each dress line the salon carries. Hover text provides the name of the dress line, and a click takes the viewer to more photos from that line.

The content is kept fresh seasonally with updated photos, and the latest bridal news and photos is found on Stacey;s Facebook and Twitter pages which are linked from icons in the website header and footer.

Visit Stacey’s website, you’ll enjoy the great photos. Make an appointment or stop by the salon if you are getting married, in a wedding, or need a formal dress for a special occasion.

Seasonal Updates

Four to five times a year Judy updates her website with women’s clothing for the new season. Mary Jane O’Brien and I just completed the updates for the Winter, and Resort seasons. Judy’s classic clothing designs are offered in gorgeous new colors, and presented in beautiful photographs taken in lovely settings. Mary Jane has acted as photographer, and graphic artist for many seasons, and her work showcases Judy P Apparel’s styles to their best advantage.

An existing site coded in HTML/CSS, we update the content on www.judypapparel.com without changing the underlying site coding. Last year Mary Jane updated the site design, without changing the layout, and I made the CSS and HTML coding changes.

This season we added a LookBook, and photoshoot video to the site, as well as updating the homepage slideshow with photos of Winter, and Resort season dresses and tops. Then Mary Jane designs and creates eblasts to let Judy’s customers know about the new clothes available.

Information Leading to Sales

RBH Insulation’s website is now fully responsive! Why is this important? Because when a potential customer is using a mobile device to search for “home insulation” or “RBH Insulation” Google search will not show an unresponsive website in the search results.

We used WordPress to develop the new responsive site, keeping closely with the existing appearance. WordPress was a great choice because the developers will handle software updates to keep current with changes in web technology. That doesn’t mean the site doesn’t need regular monitoring and maintenance, but it can mean that down the road major coding updates may not be necessary at the website level.

The appealing colors and clean design haven’t changed much in 5 years. Most of the changes are under the hood.

WooCommerce manages the SeaRenity Skin Solutions online store from products and inventory control to checkout and payment.

Another beautiful site design from Mary Jane O’Brien, this website is clean, simple, and serene. The product taxonomies allow users to find the skin care products they seek based on a variety of needs. Easy navigation, simple product selection, and smooth checkout process make the buying experience a delight. Search engine optimization of pages,posts, products, and images give the site a head-start in the SEO competition; social media will follow to bring consumers to these quality products.

Platform: WordPress website with customized Nirvana theme (Cryout Creations)Fully responsive: Easy to read and navigate on a wide range of devicesHomepage features: Image slider with links to content, recent blog posts, Instagram feed, Email signup, special offer, contact information, social media links.Additional features: Online store (WooCommerce); Lorelei’s YouTube videos are embedded on many pages, Blog.Social media: Blog entries are auto-posted on Lorelei’s Facebook and Twitter pages, sharing buttons enable readers to post items on their social media; images can be added to user Pinterest boards.Navigation: Main and top menus on all pagesSecurity: Backed up daily!

Lorelei Shellist is an author, speaker, image consultant and inner beauty empowerment coach with amazing energy, and personal charm. A runway model for Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, and many more of the world’s greatest designers. In her memoir, “Runway Runaway: A Backstage Pass to Fashion, Romance & Rock ‘n Roll” Lorelei inspires with her perseverance, determination, survival skills, and wit. Whether it is hosting or emceeing an event, leading a seminar or working one on one with a client as an Image Consultant, Fashion Consultant or Inner Beauty Empowerment Coach, her charismatic and compassionate personality that make her an invaluable resource.

In 2010 I worked with website designer and graphic artist Mary Jane O’Brien to develop an HTML website for Lorelei to showcase her many talents and services. We made several updates over the next few years, including the addition of a separate WordPress blog. In 2013 Lorelei’s friend completed a course in WordPress and asked for the opportunity to develop the entire website in WordPress. The text content was beautifully updated and the appearance was reminiscent of Mary Jane’s design. Unfortunately there were some coding and software compatibility issues, and the site did not function well. There wasn’t a backup of the site files and database, and before I could begin work the site crashed.

Lorelei and I worked together to recreate the website, adding an online store using WooCommerce, video posts, and a homepage slider linking to site content. It was a very stressful experience as Lorelei’s site was unavailable until the major work was done, and although I had backups of the former HTML website, a lot of the content had to be recreated from scratch. We survived, and Lorelei is happy with her site which she blogs on, and maintains herself (calling on me for occasional assistance.

San Pedro based My Saint My Hero has been making and selling inspirational jewelry to retail stores since 2006. They had a lackluster WordPress website with Yahoo! shopping cart which didn’t attract much business. In 2014 they made a decision to update their existing retail website in order to improve its functionality, and to make it more attractive.

With the goal of increasing the retail sales from their website we set out to give it a compelling appearance, simple navigation, and ease of use for purchasers.